Samsung found guilty of astro-turfing, may explain all those Android trolls

Samsung has admitted in Taiwan to running an internet comment smear campaign against HTC, with a marketing firm hired by them for example complaining on a 3rd party website that his girlfriend’s HTC One X was constantly crashing and how Samsung’s Galaxy Note phone was superior to HTC’s Sensation XL handset.

Taiwanese website TaiwanSamsungLeaks published documents showing Samsung’s hired marketing firm cataloguing the different forum posts it made last year on local gadget sites.

In a statement the company said the “unfortunate incident” did occur, but that “Samsung Electronics Taiwan (SET) has ceased all marketing activities that involve the posting of anonymous comments,” and that the company now adheres to “transparent and honest communications with consumers,” and is working to prevent the problem from occurring again.

Taiwan’s FTC said on Tuesday it was investigating the matter, and could punish Samsung for up to NT$25 million (US$835,000) if it is found to be in violation of fair trade rules.

For a company currently dominating the smartphone market these tricks are rather dirty, and it makes us wonder about the influx of Android trolls we have been seeing lately. If HTC is not too small to attack, why not Nokia also?

Do our readers think this practice is more widespread than it appears? Let us know below.